The Sedalia weekly bazoo. [volume] (Sedalia, Mo.) 187?-1904, 1887-05-10
After Assisting q Runaway C0u-
pie to Get Married.
The Redhanded Murderer Es.
capes, But is Finally
Captured.
A Narrative Which Tells of a
Long Chase Through
Several States

SuSt, 4OOA, hfCo aCoi uioShis thS
county seat, the families of Mcknight,
Ezell and Hargrove. They were all
respectable people in moderate cir.
cumstances, and had, intermarried
until their relationship to one another
was nearly as close as that of blood.
One of the Mcknight girls was mar
ried to Hargrove, and the latters
sister was engaged to William Nc
knight. There was no particular OBJ
lection to the match except from Z.
F. Hargrove, commonly called
"Fletch," who was bitterly set against
his wife's brother marrying his sister.
The reason for the opposition
does not clearly appear, but at
all events, young Mcknight and
Miss Hargrove found it necessary to
make arrangements for a runaway
match.
With the help of friends, they per-
fected their plans, and one dark night
in the month and year stated above,
succeeded in getting to the preacher
and being duly married, without any
nishap. A friend of the young
couple, named James Ezell, drove the
vehicle which bore Mcknight and his
lady-love to the parson. After seeing
them safe to another friends dwelling,
Ezell started for his own home.
At a lonely spot in the road, where
the shadows were deep, the report of
a shotgun broke the silence, there was
a sudden fash, and Ezell fell in his
wagon, filled with bucksbot. His
horses frightened, dashed along the
way, and stopped only at their own
gate. EzelPs family, which had not
gone to bed, being anxious to know
how it Jared with the bridal expe-
dition, went out and found Ezell lying
in the wagon, dead.
Hargrove was discovered next
morning to have sud-
denly disappeared from the neighbor-
hood, and the suspicion that he had
waylaid and murdered Eel, grew so
strong that at the next term of the
circuit court of Giles county, held at
Pulaski, the grand jury returned an
Indictment against him for murder
in the first degree. A reward, after
days had merged into weeks, and
these into months, of $500 was offered
by the authorities for his capture.
This was in 1881, and Hargrove's
wife, knowing him perhaps .better
than any one else, and also, it may
be, joining in the general belief that
her husband had killed Ezell from
ambush, under the impression that he
had shot Mcknight, secured a d.
vorce, and married another man, with
whom she is now living at Pulaski.
Hargrove's whereabouts have been
unknown until last summer, when
Major w. I. Overton, the southern
superintendent of the American As
ISOLATED Detective Company, with
headquarters at Cincinnati, located
him at PauRs Valley, in the Chicka-
saw Nation. This and the surround
ing section is said to be particularly
tough region, and infested by all sorts
of the wickedest characters, who defy
the law and any other restraint.
Before Major Overton, however,
could reach his man, Hargrove had
gone into another neighborhood and
kept moving around, until all trace of
him was lost again. He was trailed
through several counties in Texas,
then up in the nation, and finally dis
appeared altogether.
Photographs and accurate descrip-
tons of the murderer were circulated
in the Indian Territory and one of the
former led to the discovery of the
man, on the 18th of April, by Cap
tain Charlie LAHORE, of the Indian
police, who, in farm hand, calling
himself Haygood, working near john
sonville, on the Canadian river, in the
Chickasaw Nation, recognized the
East Tennessee murderer. He was
arrested and taken to Muscogee, and
placed under guard. Major Overton
was notified, and arrived last Sunday
at Muscogee to get his man. Amy
doubt as to Haygood's identity with
Hargrove was dissipated by DR..
Heald, of Texas, a brother-in-law of
Ezell, who came up from Texas,
specially, to see the murderer.
The detective and his prisoner, the
latter In shackles, arrived In Sedalia
this morning from Muscogee, and re-
NAMED at the depot an hour and a
half waiting for the train to st. Louis,
thence to 60 direct to Nashville.
Hargrove, who insists that he is Hay
good, was seen by BAzoo reporter.
He is man about ~ years of age,
roughly clad, of medium height, and
was not outwardly much agitated by